DC Comics reviews for 6/27/18

Detective Comics #983

One of the more entertaining comic book writers on Twitter, I’ve been anticipating Bryan Hill’s run on Detective Comics for a few months now. The first chapter of his arc, On the Outside, gets off to a very promising start while setting up what appears to be the return of a fan favorite team in the Rebirth era.

When James Tynion IV moved on to other books, I was concerned the Bat-team theme he’d established would quickly fade away. Detective Comics surprisingly worked well as a hub for the Batman allies to operate as one unit. Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that Hill has any desire to just make Detective another solo Batman book.

After a tragedy strikes, Batman wants to tighten the ranks again in Gotham with a new, but familiar initiative. To start off, he makes a recruitment pitch to Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning. After his enjoyable mini-series, it was nice seeing Black Lightning prominently featured again. Hill has some thoughtful takes on Black Lightning and what his role is in the DCU. But before Batman can finish his recruitment efforts, he’s got to contend with this new threat as he sets his sights on another Bat-ally.

Miguel Mendonca handles the art this issue with Diana Egea on inks and Andriano Lucas on colors. Mendonca’s art is clean — perhaps maybe just a bit too smooth for a gritty Batman story — but that’s my only gripe with the solid artwork.

This villain has a unique stance and one that’s probably been discussed a few times by Batman fans as well. Hill has piqued my interest with this premise and I’m looking forward to seeing where he will take the next chapter.